Who originated the phrase?

[c4sab]

Let a thousand flowers bloom.

[Quizmonster]

Mao Zedong (Mao Tse Tung) the Chinese leader said: "Let a hundred flowers bloom" in a speech about the contradictions within communist societies. I imagine that is the quote you are referring to.

[bernardo]

The full quote is usually given as "let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of though contend".  It was a brief period of enlightenment in the 1950s, when Mao encouraged people to speak openly to criticise local officials or to suggest solutions to problems or inefficiency and bad production.  When people took advantage of this to criticise Mao and the Communist regime, Mao was so outraged that within months he ordered a ruthless crackdown and had thousands of people imprisoned or killed.  Historians are divided about whether this was organised as a deliberate ploy to flush out his enemies, or whether he was genuinely naive and not expecting anybody to be so critical.